{"id":3651,"date":"2010-07-09T13:20:08","date_gmt":"2010-07-09T21:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=3651"},"modified":"2010-07-24T22:02:13","modified_gmt":"2010-07-25T06:02:13","slug":"veritas-prep-gmat-tips-probability-the-steve-wynn-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/veritas-prep-gmat-tips-probability-the-steve-wynn-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Veritas Prep GMAT Tips: Probability the Steve Wynn Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brian Galvin is the Director of Academic Programs at Veritas Prep, where he oversees all of the company\u2019s GMAT preparation courses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Las Vegas entices millions of visitors each year with the promise of riches, but even gambling winners typically note that \u201cwhat happens in Vegas stays in Vegas\u201d, including the money that they won, spent on lavish meals, rounds of drinks, and other indulgences.\u00a0 More commonly, a short hot streak turns quickly into a loss, and most Vegas visitors go home having lost or at least spent more money than they wish they had.<\/p>\n

Not so for Steve Wynn, the famous developer of Las Vegas\u2019 newest and most elegant hotel\/casinos, including Bellagio, Wynn, and Encore.\u00a0 Taking full advantage of the cardinal rule of Las Vegas probability \u2013 over time, the house always wins \u2013 Wynn has taken Las Vegas for well over a billion dollars of personal wealth and turned himself into a luxury brand name in the process.\u00a0 How did this real estate and casino developer even out-trump Trump in net worth?\u00a0 Among other things, Wynn used probability to his advantage, and you can do the same on the GMAT as you attempt to climb onto the Forbes list yourself.<\/p>\n

In order to succeed on GMAT probability questions, you don\u2019t need to have Rain Man facility with numbers, but rather a businessman\u2019s knack for efficiency.\u00a0 Say that a question asks:<\/p>\n

On three consecutive flips of a coin, what is the probability of receiving at least one \u2018heads\u2019?<\/p>\n

In this case, there are several sequences that would produce \u201cat least one\u201d heads:<\/p>\n

Heads, Tails, Tails<\/p>\n

Heads, Tails, Heads<\/p>\n

Heads, Heads, Tails<\/p>\n

Tails, Tails, Heads<\/p>\n

Etc.<\/p>\n

This method may well get you to the correct answer, but it\u2019s time consuming and has the potential for error if you miss or double-count one of the sequences.\u00a0 It\u2019s much more efficient to understand that the opposite of \u201cat least one heads\u201d is \u201cno heads\u201d, and that the two statements are complementary \u2013 one and only one of those things will happen, so their probabilities must add up to 100%.<\/p>\n

There is only one way to get \u201cno heads\u201d on three straight coin flips:<\/p>\n

Tails, Tails, Tails<\/p>\n

The probability of this sequence is \u00bd for the first tails, then \u00bd for the second, then \u00bd for the third, so it can be represented as:<\/p>\n

\u00bd * \u00bd * \u00bd = 1\/8<\/p>\n

If there is a 1\/8 chance of getting no heads, then there is a 1 \u2013 1\/8 chance of getting the other possibilities, each of which gets you at least one heads.\u00a0 Therefore, there is a 7\/8 chance of getting at least one heads.<\/p>\n

When viewing probability problems that ask you for the probability of getting \u201cat least one\u201d of a certain outcome, think shrewdly and recognize that it will likely be easier to take the probability of \u201cnone\u201d and subtract from 100%.\u00a0 Thinking like a casino billionaire like Steve Wynn will help you here \u2013 remember that, when it comes to probability on the GMAT, it\u2019s often smartest to figure out the smaller probability that your opponent will win, and take the remainder as the larger probability that you come out on top.<\/p>\n

Read more GMAT advice in our GMAT lesson booklets<\/a> which are now available for individual purchase.\u00a0 Ready to sign up for a GMAT course<\/a>? Enroll through GMAT Club and save up to $180 (use discount code GMATC10)!<\/p>\n

\"Veritas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brian Galvin is the Director of Academic Programs at Veritas Prep, where he oversees all of the company\u2019s GMAT preparation courses. Las Vegas entices millions of visitors each year with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3651"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3866,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651\/revisions\/3866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}